1. Portals, uPortal, and the Meteor Channel
Justin Tilton
instructional media + magic, inc.
As presented at the
2001 EAC-EASCI Financial Aid Administrator Advisory Board Meeting
Thursday, June 14th 2001
Monticello, Minnesota

2. Portal defined
generally synonymous with gateway, for a World Wide Web site that is or proposes to be a major starting site for users when they get connected to the Web
May 19, 2001
software integrating many divergent systems for presentation and use on the Web

3. Yahoo, the portal example

4. MyYahoo, a personal portal

5. The Academic Web World
Research
Library
Administrative
Instruction

6. Students expectations shaped by...
Their experience applying for federal financial aid
Their use of financial services portals
Their use of the Internet
Their life in a “real-time, information rich” environment

7. Why a campus portal? Improve user productivity and satisfaction
Integrate divergent administrative systems
Standards for developing Web materials
Introduce new, improved productivity technologies

8. Why are portals important
Makes knowledge workers more productive
Preferred by users
Market share
Brand identity
A viable architecture for information services
Time to market
Improved services
Lower costs

9. Features of uPortal
Framework for presenting aggregated content (channels)
Personalization
Role-based access control
“Toward” single signon

10. University of British Columbia

11. University of Hawaii

12. University of Hawaii

13. The College of the Holy Cross

14. University of Delaware

15. uPortal 2.0

16. The key technologies Java programming language XSL transformation
Internet messaging

17. Standards XSL RSS RFC SSL TLS XML DTD Java IFX J2EE ISO XSLT ANS LDAP
HTTP
SAML
HTML
HTTPS
TCP/IP
X.509c3
XML Path
XML Link
XML Schema
IFX
ISO
ANS
UDDI
MIME
SMTP
IMAP
WfML
SOAP
vCard
WSDL
cpXML
ebXML
eduPerson
Dublin Core
ECMAScript
Channel API

18. Typical user services Single signon e-mail and Internet messaging
Web channels
Calendaring
College or university announcements
Administrative applications

19. uPortal Interfaces Authentication Proving your identity Authorization
Deciding what you can access
User preferences
Profiles, structure, themes, skins
Channel information
Availability and configuration

20. Flexible Layouts Structures Tab / column Tree / column Themes
Multi-column
Multi-row
Skins
Matrix, Java, UoSM, im+m

21. Content Transformation
XML
XSLT
Processor
XHTML: Web Browser
HTML: PDA
Stylesheet
WML: Cell Phone

22. Tab / Column Layout

23. Tree / Column Layout

24. Theme: uosm

25. Theme: java

26. Theme: imm

27. Theme: matrix

28. Multiple Target Devices

29. What is a Channel? Displays content XML feeds Legacy systems
Rich Site Summary (RSS)
Web services
Legacy systems
Interactive applications
Bookmarks
, chat, list serves

30. RSS Channel

31. The Meteor “channel”
Meteor is the software and service to obtain a student’s own financial aid information from a number of different data sources.
Provides a needed information service for students and alumni
Provides an information resource for financial aid professionals
Becomes a step toward implementation of the Department of Education’s real-time “Common Origination and Disbursement” (2005).

32. Data from multiple sources, locations

33. uPortal Meteor Channel - Display

34. Sample Meteor loan detail

35. The Meteor channel

36. As implemented ... Web Services Meteor Secure HTML Secure XML Standard
Browser
uPortal
Meteor
SOAP
Meteor
SOAP
Database

37. Pilot implementation Sallie Mae Great Lakes PHEAA Home Page
Access Provider Website
Authentication
National Student
Clearinghouse
Loan Locator List
Loan 1
National Student
Loan 2
Clearinghouse
Loan 3
Sallie Mae
Great Lakes
PHEAA

38. Why uPortal for Meteor? Standards based for broad compatibility
Open Source - adaptation, control
New, proven, broadly adopted real-time technology
Java + “Web Services” technology
XML/XSL/XSLT, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI
Community of higher education developers, users

39. Relationship of Meteor and JA-SIG
uPortal
The Meteor
Project
Meteor Channel

40. Shared standards, JA-SIG and Meteor
Java components
J2EE
XML
XSL, XSLT
RSS
HTML, WML (Devices)
HTTPS SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0
SAML  
possible
likely

41. Why is this important to schools?
Schools will have to implement XML business messaging to participate in the Department of Education’s financial aid programs.
Schools must use Java to implement SFA-provided Java software components
Need analysis EFC, entrance and exit interviews, and Pell Grant computation
SFA UDDI directory will likely replace PEPS and be the source of a participant’s customer service contacts and supported electronic services

42. The end www. immagic. com www. meteorproject. org and www
The end and